"The Riddle Game begins now."
Just at the time the three Symhars ended their speech, the timer appeared within Damon's Axon, allowing him access to it, and the countdown started.
The Riddle Game was set to last for ten minutes, no more no less.
After that, the outcome of events that follow will heavily depend on whether Damon won or lost.
If he won, the outcome of this was very much obvious to be favourable.
He would simply ascend to the 2nd floor of the Crimson Spire.
However, in the event that he lost the riddle…
Damon was not sure what awaited him at the end of that road, but it certainly will not be good.
He didn't even want to know, much less experience it.
What happens to him if he loses was a piece of information that only the Floor Guardian had as host of the challenge.
As already established, the 1st floor was ruled by two guardians, Naaray and Symhar, who were somewhat opposite of each other.
While Naaray was tall, radiant and beautiful with her blonde hair and endowments; Symhar was average in height, gloomy and won't exactly be described as handsome with dark hair and pale skin and a frail-looking body.
Each of these two guardians hosted the Riddle Game, taking one participant each.
That meant that only two players could participate at a time and at this time, it was the players, Spectre (Damon) and RedQueen69.
The host of the Riddle Game as it concerned a certain player depended on which of them the player met on entry into the Crimson Spire.
Those who encounter Symhar on entry into the tower, get Naaray as their host for the challenge and vice versa, as in Damon's case.
.
.
.
Damon glanced at the timer that popped up in his notifications.
[Riddle Game]
[Time Left — 00h : 09m : 48s]
The game had only just started and his state of shock snatched 12 seconds from his time. Unfortunately for Damon, he was guaranteed to lose even more time if he does not end the game quickly.
The Riddle Game was a simple yet complicated challenge.
It required that a player be as fast in thinking and at the same time, slow in thinking.
Rushing one's thoughts in order to clear the challenge quickly, although a good strategy, was not always the best and could lead to abysmal failure. t
It was a double-edged sword.
On the other hand, a waste of time on the player's end was bound to lead to a loss as well.
Damon breathed in and out deeply to calm his nerves and relax his mind.
It was a riddle.
Nothing strange.
Nothing he wasn't used to.
He had come across so many of them in the real world.
This was his forte but he needed to think straight and calmly to prove that it was indeed something he excelled at.
Damon recalled every word of the Symhar's riddle in his head.
'One of us will always tell the truth. One of us will always lie. One of us will always be on the fence, deciding to say the truth or lie however he deems fit.'
Damon's tactic for tackling the task was to divide the riddle into parts and analyse those parts critically.
Of course, he knew that there would be loopholes to exploit as well as unspoken rules to be wary of, but if he could figure out an important loophole, then he had won the challenge.
Damon had only one mission to accomplish as he recalled the condition for passing the test.
'To pass the Riddle Game, you must identify which of us is which — the Symhar of Truth, the Symhar of Lies and the Symhar of Both.'
Using the [Expand] option, he enlarged the blue notification screen so he could easily glance at the timer to keep track of the time.
[Time Left — 00h : 08m : 58s]
A little over a minute had passed while he was thinking of a strategy. That was not much of a loss of time to worry about but he needed to be cautious from then.
"One will always say the truth," he muttered to himself.
"One will always lie."
"One can choose either to lie or to speak the truth."
Damon sighed.
The challenge was starting to look more and more difficult, the deeper he thought about it.
He shut his eyes for a moment, thinking deeply about the riddle.
The clues that were probably hidden between the lines.
The loopholes and...
The unspoken rules.
He thought about it all.